An Introduction to Altmetrics: Alternative Indicators to Explore the Impact of Research with an Emphasis on the Social Web

Regarding the increasing growth of the social web and its tools as a new ground to distribute research findings and scholar communications, there is a necessity for evaluation of the quality of scientific research, which was distributed through this media. This study aims to introduce altmetrics as a new solution for evaluation of the research impact in the social Web.
This study has been done based on an analytical and critical literature review. In the first part of the paper, altmetrics has been defined and then the related literature has been explored to identify the limitations and weaknesses of the traditional methods of research evaluation. In the next stage the indicators and tools of altmetrics have been explained. Moreover, the benefits, implications and limits of this method have been explained in more details. The final part of the paper includes a roadmap for further altmetrics research.
Findings: Altmetrics’ indicators which are based on the social web are being used as new alternative methods of evaluating the usefulness and the impact of articles and other types of research findings. These methods, which are becoming more popular, are useful to assess the impact of academic and nonacademic studies. The speed, simplicity and clarity of these indexes are among the reasons of the accreditation of this new approach. Finally, it will lead to the development and flourishing of these new scholar communications.
Altmetrics is a new method of assessing the impact and the distribution of academic and nonacademic studies and can be considered as an easy, appropriate and relevant way of research evaluation. This approach is still in its beginning stages and its development requires more detailed studies to examine the efficiency of alternative methods.